It looks like businessman Lavrentis Lavrentiadis has his foot everywhere. On Friday the main shareholder in Proton Bank was called before several Greek magistrates who are apparently investigating the Siemens bribery scandal so that he could explain how a payment of 1 million euros from the German firm ended up in his bank account. As expected Lavrentiadis, who is already under investigation by Greek prosecutors for alleged fraud, embezzlement and corruption involving up to 700 million euros case, denied any wrongdoing and rather said that he had lent the money to the firm’s Greek branch, Siemens Hellas, and it was returned to him by executives in Germany.
Meanwhile, news reports said that the government reached an out-of-court settlement with the German company, which has been accused of bribing Greek politicians in the past to secure lucrative contracts through its Greek branch, Siemens Hellas.
Apparently Siemens is waving the 80 million euros that Greece owed for previous projects and has also pledged to contribute 90 million euros to public programs to combat corruption and towards good causes. The company is also getting set to invest 100 million euros in Siemens Hellas and another 60 million euros in innovation.
Note: That is kind of ironic... the bribers are now going to consult us on how not to bribe...
Posts
